Final FantasyWhat We Leave Behind
by NeillyMurphy
Summary: The legendary sephiroth? The character has been relentlessly explored by many writers but this piece brings something fresh, the parts of the villian that impressed us so much the first time. Contains violent theme which is persistent. Not Completed!!!
1. Prologue Ungod

Hey, as a first fanfic for this site I hope you enjoy. I have been writing for a long time, and I believe I know how to write well. I have won several writing competitions, some at a national level so I really do hope you are impressed basically because I'm seeking a publisher. Many thanks to this site for giving this kind of opportunity to many young writers. "Final Fantasy" and "7" in particular proves an excellent test ground to write due to its wealth of plot driven action set- pieces and its popularity. This story concerns the infamous Sephiroth and the birth of the God himself, as he battles both the last remnants of Shinra and the Planet single-handedly.  
  
  
  
Final Fantasy- What We Leave Behind  
  
UNGOD  
  
Neil Murphy  
  
Flowing silver streaking across the crimson sky- like the glint of the legendary Masamune piercing the bloodied flesh of the planet, folds of pitch black flapping furiously against winds conjured by unimaginable forces high above, a man rose, over the snow, ever so slowly, and determinately, towards his ultimate destination.  
  
Fingers clutching and grappling his blade and snow unsteadily, he pulled himself up to the highest pinnacles of the greatest creation of mankind- a tower reaching infinitely high into the stratosphere, once the pride of civilisation, now the bane of all life; not even its creators were spared. Green Mako eyes blazing with an inhuman glow, lips curled up into a crazed glee, his immense but powerfully-built frame shook ever so slightly, as the moment of his glory came dangerously near.  
  
Body drenched in perspiration, his breath quickened from anticipation, he finally reached the peak of the almighty Shinra tower. Spreading his arms, face tilted heavenward, his black cloak fanned out in all directions, like rivers of darkness trailing behind his shadows.  
  
He was waiting to receive what was his.and His alone.  
  
Laughter filled the air.  
  
"Let Cloud and his group of bandits battle their way to the centre of the Planet. Let them be drowned in a bloodbath with His clones, while he pursues his destiny" "Words such as destiny do not serve him."  
  
Not even the powers of the Gods could stop him now.  
  
Angry storms continued to lash out, besieging his mortal form with shrapnel and debris from the crumbling metropolis deep down below. They sliced and tore cruelly at the worn-out leather, exposing the human skin and flesh beneath. Phantom claws continued to assault his body as he began his deathly march toward the edge of the platform, resting atop the Shinra Headquarters building.  
  
Never once did he wince in pain, for there was none.  
  
Fiery spouts poured out from where the ground could no longer hold, unleashing the anger of the Planet in the form of searing heat waves and hurricanes hell bent on destruction. Twisted metal liquefied and massive concrete walls crumbled under the immense stress, releasing heat and dust billowing into the chaotic skies that the dark man commanded.choking the very air life lived on. The swirling atmosphere surrounding Midgar was fast reaching boiling point, as it cracked with raw energy where oxygen spontaneously combusted into flames. They burned and scalded, inflicting tremendous damage on everything in its path, vapourizing all which stood in the way. The people bursting apart in fountains of red.  
  
Yet the man was untouched.  
  
The elements continued to pound ceaselessly at the intruding entity hovering over the lands, as well as the man who would rendezvous at the point of impact. They brazenly attacked the two, stubbornly resisting the impending doom befalling their precious homeworld.  
  
Still Meteor continued its descent.  
  
He marvelled at the magnificent sight before his very eyes. The burning sky was consumed by the hellish aura of Meteor. There were no clouds, only wisps of water vapour where they once were, in the path of the falling rock. Bits of debris floated and twirled violently, carried by the winds, before diving sharply when the forces of gravity took hold.  
  
Squinting his eyes against the scarlet light and the advancing heat, he could make out wide cracks weaving their way on Meteor's surface, interspersed with craters and countless shallow crevices. Toxic fumes flared out, snaking along the outline of the sphere-like rock, entwining intimately with the chaos ravaging the city below. Dark, evil energy exuded from the gaping chasms, the tendrils spreading far and wide across the continent, simultaneously burrowing deeply in his body.  
  
He felt it all. A sense of unbridled exhilaration, of ungodly power, and of imminent triumph washed over his form, filling him with an utter twisted delight.  
  
He smiled. He found it beautiful.  
  
Standing high and tall at the peak of the tower, shear exultation showing in his visage- a victorious warrior clad in black staring up in the skies, his waist-length hair flowing behind him like a river of quicksilver. One hand extended upward, as though to reach out and caress the surface of his creation, the Meteor. The other was tightly gripping the hilt of his trusty, wavering, seven-foot blade-the legendary Masamune.  
  
He could almost taste the Planets energy as ribbons of pure sin, enveloping and empowering him, metamorphosing his mortal form into a higher level of existence.  
  
He would be reborn, he would be immortalized, and he would create the future to his Mother's design.  
  
"Great calamity from the skies, It is I, the Great Sephiroth, The One-Winged Angel Arises."  
  
The destruction continued, but there were no sounds. Only his heartbeat was heard. 


	2. Chapter 1 The Lesser of Two Evils

Chapter 1- The Lesser of Two Evils  
  
The storm above raged on, never showing any signs of abatement. The wind continued to pound at his frame with full fury, allowing waves of heat to bathe and burn every inch of his exposed body. The monster within seemed to have been forgotten for the moment. Soaring like a raven, from the crumbling ledge he observed a broken place.  
  
Midgar.  
  
Somehow, the star in the crown of Shinra's corrupt reign, always drew him back. Even now when he lingered on the edge of oblivion and the great beyond, its pillars and glass walls called him. Even now when there was nothing left but ruins and broken ,melted ,scrap, tainted with the remnants of the fiery mako that had raged uncontrolled and unchecked across the waste of metal and stone. Even now it was beautiful and he had come back to obliterate and cauterise that memory of torment at their hands. A dive and he was perched on a tilting pillar, studded with bits of broken metal and melted rock. His wings rustled, rubbing together in sickening symphony. His wings.a flicker drew his eyes to the side. These.they were like rotting shadows that had been ripped and torn from their holdings and thrown over decaying bones. Bones that rattled and scraped across each other, flaking and tearing and crumbling in clumps and pieces, falling to scorch the earth. Sephiroth smirked " An Angel with the wings of a bat."Shortly he would walk away, spread his wings and vanish forever. But not just yet. The piercing green in his eyes, the gleaming silver of his hair, brushing grey bangs from his face. The horror that were his wings. He jerked his gaze away.  
  
His head clicked up instantly as he wiped his eyes, reflex demanding that he be dignified and untouchable even though no mortal could see him. A rock bounced into his field of vision, skittering and rolling into the pillar he was perched upon. Surely no one was here, not here in the contaminated ruin that was Midgar. Just as he was about to dismiss the stone as nothing more than an accident of the wind, a figure strolled after it , hunched slightly against the now cool air.  
  
Rufus dismissed Sephiroth, smiling. he raised from the shattered remnants of the headquarters to meet another monster, much like him. A titanic distance between them. His once elegant white suit stained with his blood He clenched his shotgun poising it to the warriors head.  
  
"There is no sky." Rufus began, smirking at the black-garbed god." I never realized how the lack of a sun, of a blue sky, no matter how faded the both of them were, would disturb the setting of such a place"  
  
Sephiroth strangely listened " I sensed your death. Why do you live?!"  
  
"It wasn't you who did this to me. I'm dead anyway, a single potion is keeping me alive. These are pretty thoughts, thoughts that take my mind from the pain in my chest. Crimson blood flows there and leaks from me. I did not escape from the building unharmed, shrapnel fills my lungs now. The pain courses through me again, and let my mind go back to my pretty thoughts."  
  
Sephiroth stood, towering over the flame-haired president. He manipulated the clouds above "The lack of a sky disturbs me" They seemed to speak together in an interconnected verse. The sky returned, flashing across the horizon.  
  
Rufus fell to one knee "You are a god." Clicking the trigger hesitantly, the bullet was contorted and deflected by his blade.  
  
Sephiroth approached the young president.  
  
"My empire lies in ruins now, but that is a small setback. I may have been raised on money, but I know how to keep it.and how to earn it back. Not like my so-called father that you destroyed. By killing him you did me a favour. He was man who thought anyone could be bought by the little pieces of credit called Gil. I have learned that people are bought at a much cheaper price"  
  
"Their lives" Sephiroth continued to walk.  
  
"I know honour and what must be done to attain it. I am a devil despite that many regarded me as an angel. PR saw to that, and those who were not swayed by my PR's honey and rose words, they were convinced by the Turks weapons. Like Shinra they were once mighty. Now look what remains. Nothing."  
  
Sephiroth was almost upon him. "Did you find my storm interesting?"  
  
Rufus laughed "What now. I heard the rumours the other day. I am dead they say. In the crib, when I was an infant, I was fed with diamond bottles and I never cried. I have never cried! But these are pretty thoughts. I was born to diamonds and it seems diamonds will in fact, kill me. Almost poetic. Born to diamonds, Killed by Diamond."  
  
"No, I will"  
  
Cleaving his right arm off firstly, Rufus rolled in agony. He shuddered, feeling the walls he held so tightly around himself began to crack. Not that there was anything left to help prop them up but the fading remnants of his will. Nothing to force him to hide or put up a pretty face.nothing to save his own corrupted reflection.it didn't matter now. Sephiroth halted in front of the president . He blocked the next attack with the barrel of his shotgun. " You are .my god." There was no answer. The Masamune slashed across Shinra's stomach. He fell to his knees as his entrails spilled out. Mercifully the bright sword then clove through his neck. Rufus cried as he died. Sephiroth watched him die  
  
"We will meet again. I promise"  
  
The wind was turning bitter and he drew his cloak more closely about him. He felt flat now, and terribly tired. The fury of the day had spent itself. After placing the presidents body in a pool of Mako, Sephiroth head for the hills. 


	3. Chapter 2 Legend

Chapter 2- Legend  
  
For one week there was no sign of Sephiroth. Rumours flickered from town to village like buds of flame. The eastern continent had became a hive of tittle-tattle; out of fear and turmoil. Things had changed. Shinra and its last remnants were scattered; broken apart. Military camps had been eradicated across the entire country. Within this chaos the people recognised his legacy written in starlight. He is Sephiroth, the One-Winged Angel, born in a storm that doomed his creators. They saw that. But most of all the people saw the hero of old and his downfall; the demise of a great man who became a winged god.  
  
Lifting a lantern from the wall Sephiroth strode out into the night. The wind at his back, he gazed around the sleeping settlement of Kalm. Casting a flare of energy across wooden walls which set it alight. The wind fanned the flames, and burning cinders flew from one thatched roof to the next. Soon a number of fires were blazing. Villagers began to run from their homes- even the men. Sephiroth moved among them, slashing left and right with the Masamune. Behind him flames licked out of the open doorway of the inn, then broke through the roof.  
  
Panic swept through the settlement as Sephiroth hovered over the flames, killing anyone who came within the reach of his blade. Two courageous young men ran at him, carrying hatchets. He slew them both. The villagers began to stream from the settlement.  
  
An hour later after destroying homes untouched by the fire, blood covered, Sephiroth sheathed his sword. Everything was gone: the homes, the net huts, the storehouses. He gazed on a scene of utter devastation.  
  
Wearily he pushed himself to his feet and walked through what had once been the main street in Kalm. Bodies lay everywhere, some burnt, some not touched by fire. As he walked Sephiroth saw that he had been utterly undiscriminating. Women lay dead alongside their men, and at the far end of the street two children had been cut down. Judging by the blood trail, one of them had crawled a little way before dying.  
  
As he stood the there, surveying the grim evidence of his rage, he knew that only part of his fury had been inspired by Hojo and Shinra.  
  
All his life he wanted to be a hero, to kill their monsters and to sign their pictures. To give people someone to believe in. He was created to live down the perceived legacy set by Shinra. He gazed upon the ruins, and watched flakes of grey ash floating in the breeze. All was ashes now. He had found a love, a great love of the people and had surrendered them to die. In the process he had become not only an adulterer and killer, but a murderer of women and children.  
  
Tears spilled on his pale face, and fell to his knees, calling out the name "Nibliheim" again and again. " Mother!!! Why did you make me do this!!!!!!!!!"  
  
In the hills the survivors of the massacre gathered, listening to the sounds. The anguished cries carried the weight of both grief and madness. The survivors huddled closer together, and prayed the demon would now leave them be. Very soon again, much like Midgar only his heartbeat could be heard across the continent as he cried. 


	4. Chapter 3 A Private Little War

Chapter 3- A Private Little War  
  
The mighty Cloud Strife dismounted from his motorcycle and knelt, pressing his fingers into the dirt marsh, examining the footprints of his target. Then he rose. From a distance the mercenary looked as he always had, powerful and imposing. But he could no longer stand close inspection. His hair and face showed as unhealthy sheen of exhaustion. His frame glowed with unnatural colour and his eyes saw treachery in every shadow. In the cool pre-dawn haze, He threw his patchwork red cloak around him, he boar a tight hardened look of a man who had been through the raging fires of his subconscious. Indeed he had. He always wore armour- even it was said when he slept. Producing a titanic blade, which he dragged across the earth, he listened to the wind.  
  
Strife had left his companions for a short time. He was alone or as good as alone. Soon they would head out from the Northern Border; he trusted his own solitude and would combat Sephiroth unaided. Cloud was powerful and he had shook the world. "SEPHIROTH!!!" His voice roared and echoed across the grasslands.  
  
Across the marsh as the sun blared out from behind the trees he saw the distinguished shadow of the fallen hero. The man, no god was as close to myth as he had ever been. He plunged his Msamune into the earth before him. Standing silently for a moment, his strong hands resting on the pommel of his blade, his black cloak billowing in the breeze that began to pick up. It was the One-Winged Angel.  
  
Sephiroth began "Brother, you didn't ask me here to talk."  
  
"Last night you killed.every last one. There is no Shinra left. You became your enemy when you destroyed Kalm. Paying for the services of a .you murdered her and obliterated the town in a sea of flame. The women.the children. I will avenge them all"  
  
" I am here"  
  
Slowly they drew their mighty blades.  
  
"That night will haunt me for eternity" his Masamune glinted with tainted blood.  
  
Cloud muttered "Eternity? Sephiroth, you are running on borrowed time." Strife had always believed himself immune to fear. He had fought battles and faced enemies all his adult life. Fear was for lesser men. Thus it was that he did not recognise the trembling in his stomach, or the first tugs of panic pulling at his mind. A cold breeze filtered through the trees. He wondered if his companions had survived. That was all that counted, AVALANCHE would bring a new age of prosperity to this world.  
  
Sephiroth spoke, the voice issuing across the countryside. "Come to me and know death, Cloud!" The mercenary hefted his Buster Sword and moved forward.  
  
With astonishing speed the dark man charged with his Masamune. He flashed up then down with sickening force, piercing Clouds torso. Smashing through sinew. Strife did not feel.disconnecting the pain. The god's fist then struck the mercenary hard, hurling him from his feet. Losing grip of his sword, Cloud skidded across the marsh on his back, his legs slipping into a small chasm. Rolling to his belly instantly, clenching his blade, halting his slide.  
  
The Great Sephiroth, now hooded, reared up, Cloud's blood noticeable on the tip of his weapon. Strife surged upright, charging at the dark warrior. A blade like arm swept down, ripping through Clouds shoulder armour; scoring his flesh with the pain of fire. Reaching up Cloud bellowed " ULTIMA!!!"  
  
Ripples of jaded nuclear energy overtook Sephiroth; feet ripped from the ground. Tumbling back. Retaliating, he fell into the chasm. Luck was on Strife's side. He crawled to the edge of the shallow ravine.  
  
He was not there. Longing for the bliss of sleep; he was then vaulted and catapulted into a dense grouping of trees and thorn plush from behind. Thorns caught in the skin.  
  
Approaching him and suddenly just before finishing his nemesis, Sephiroth was propelled backward. The impressive Highwind roared into view; blasting torpedoes. The fallen Cloud was then liberated from the marsh.  
  
Sephiroth did not follow. They meant too little. 


End file.
